Bard finishes 6th at State Amateur

Thursday

Aug 10, 2017 at 9:28 PM

Ben Birnell

A member of the Bard family turned in a top-10 finish for the third consecutive year at the New York State Men’s Amateur Championship.

New Hartford golfer Alec Bard shot a four-over par 75 in the third round and followed with a three-over 74 in the final round to finish a tough, busy Thursday at Long Island’s Bethpage Black course alone in sixth place.

Bard, who was three strokes back of the lead heading into the final day, finished with a five-over 289 total for the tournament and eight behind winner Adam Condello. Bard, the Cedar Lake Club member, had a 2-under 69 on Wednesday to put him within striking distance going into the final day.

Condello, the tournament’s second-round leader, fired back-to-back 72s on Thursday to finish a stroke ahead of Will Thomson, whose rounds of 69 and 70 made things interesting. Condello (281 total), who tied for runner-up in the 2015 State Amateur, and Thomson (282) were the only two golfers to finish under-par for the tournament. Two others — Arthur Griffin (rounds of 68 and 70) and Matthew Lowe (70), who finished a stroke ahead of Bard — broke par Thursday in the field that was trimmed to 46 players after the second round.

Former Mohawk Valley Community College standout Dante Migliore had two tough rounds Thursday. Migliore, a Yahnundasis Golf Club member from Frankfort, finished with an 82 and 83 for a 312 total and tied for 43rd.

Bard tied for 21st and Migliore tied for 25th in last year’s event at the Mohawk Golf Club. Bard’s brother Derek, who is set to play in the U.S. Amateur next week, finished third last year and fourth in 2015.

Bard began Thursday on the back-nine, where he was 2-over. On the front, he had bogey on three of the first five holes before back-to-back to birdies on 408-yard par-4 6th and 553-yard par-5 7th to get closer to par. The highlight of his final round happened when had birdie on the 517-yard par-5 4th. He was in fourth place with five holes to play, but had bogey on the final two to push him back.

Migliore had a rough start Thursday on the back nine when he made double-bogey on two of his early holes, but later had birdie on the 186-yard par 3 17th. His afternoon also got off to a tough start with a double-bogey on the second hole. Later, he birdied 15.